Airport travel and Day 1

I got to Goerke’s corners around 12:20, met up with Joe and had my last American meal – a 6” sub from Subway. We went back to the park and ride and met up with Erika and then like 4 minutes later the coach pulled in. It was really tough saying bye, but at the same time I was excited for the trip ahead.

The ride to Chicago was smooth and easy. It did snow quite a bit when we were driving through Southern WI, but that didn’t seem to slow us down. We got to the airport in really good time, so good in fact that when we checked in at the British Airways check in, we were the only ones in line and they said, “Do you want to catch an earlier flight?” So we did, which meant we boarded in ½ an hour after getting to Chicago. That was really nice, but meant that we’d have an even longer layover in London. We were also called over the intercom in Chicago. It was weird hearing our names over the loudspeaker! We thought we were in trouble, but no, they just wanted to switch our seats so they could keep a family together.

The flight over was not too bad. I was in the very middle of the plane—the middle seat of the 3 middle seats. I slept a good chunk and also watched two movies. I was having issues with the earphone plug in thing though, so it got annoying. One funny thing about this flight was that the pilot’s name was Benjamin Franklin, with a lovely British accent! At first we were thinking since we had so much time in London we should just leave the airport and see stuff. But as the flight progressed we both started thinking that maybe we shouldn’t, which I was quite happy about. I didn’t want to have to mess with leaving, always stressing about the time, and then having to go through security to get back in again.

London was very boring though. The first thing we did was find a quiet corner of the terminal and go to sleep. It was hard because I was paranoid about having my bags close to me so nobody could snatch them, and the floor was uncomfortable and dirty (I put a blanket down but it didn’t help much) and the floor was tiled, so it was freezing. I think I maybe slept an hour and a half or so then had to get up. Erika did a lot of walking around the terminal and we read our kindles, but I was still so tired I ended up dozing off a lot more throughout the day. We managed to somehow pass the time from landing at 6am something til after 12. Then we wandered around the airport some more, checking out stores etc. Finally we decided to grab a late lunch at an awesome café with giraffes. I got some hummus and avocados and tomatoes and a little salad thing with bread, and a hippy hippy smoothie. It was very good. By the time we left the café we maybe had another couple hours to kill before our flight was even posted. It was finally posted, but no gate number so we just hung out again in some awesome saucer chairs we found. Finally the gate was posted and instead of being 20mins away in Concourse C like I predicted, it was the gate about 4 gates away from where we were hanging out. So it was a quick walk over there to the small gate and I already knew we were at the right one when I saw Zambians there.

We boarded really quickly and we were on a nicer plane than our previous plane. There weren’t many people on board, so people could move seats after we were in the air. Erika ended up going to the back of the plane, but then she had 2 seats to herself, and so did I. A window seat at that! I had some good conversation with the people in front of me. One American that had lived there for a while and was going back to visit his daughter in the Northern Provinces, and one native Zambian who had been living in Dallas for 15 years but was going back for his visit. He was from Chelston—right where the sem. is. Small world!

This flight was nice because you had more choices of movies and TV to watch, plus we could spread out. Before you knew it they turned the cabin lights on and breakfast was passed around and we were only 1 ½ hours from landing. I said before that I didn’t think it would sink in until we were flying over Lusaka ready to land. And that’s about right. Seeing the African landscape again was truly like coming home. Flying into the tiny Lusaka airport, seeing Zambians everywhere and hearing their accents—just wonderful! We got through the airport fairly quickly with no problems, and Uncle Ernie was there to meet us. The weather was wonderful—seventies and partly sunny, not very humid.

Driving on the other side of the road again, with pedestrians lining each side of the street was so awesome to see. Aspects like this make it seem like I never left. Later however, when we went into town it was quite different. We went to the Dutch Reform market where a bunch of vendors set up their curio stalls and we actually made our first purchases of the trip. No wasting time here! Then we went grocery shopping and bought our internet time and phone minutes. It was a long day of business but all important things. We ate lunch at a super snazzy Nandos in the mall. The mall is so modern. When I wasn’t thinking about it, I would never have guessed we were in Africa.

We got back to the guest house just in time to quick get on facebook, but then went over to the soccer field where Dave was having a kickball game with the kids. Erika joined right in, but I couldn’t resist sitting on the grass with a bunch of adorable Zambian children talking to them and tickling this one adorable girl. They were so funny, labeling all the parts of the body, counting to 20 and saying their alphabet chants. I don’t think I would have wanted to be anywhere else in that moment. Back home, surrounded by young children, laughing and talking with them even though we hardly understood one another.

After an awesome afternoon of catching up with missionaries, playing with the kids, and taking a quick walk around campus, we headed over to my aunt and uncles’ for supper. We had a delicious meal and good conversation, and even a power outage for a welcome back to Africa.

Still haven’t unpacked, but after church tomorrow there’s nothing really planned so I figure I’ll have tons of time to really get settled in the guest house.

I also forgot to mention that we have a wonderful housekeeper/cook named Ann who is just so wonderful! She already is taking such great care of us, protecting us from snakes getting into our guest house area (yes we already guess there might have been a black mamba in the drain outside), getting the transformer on so we can have power and just making sure we have everything we need! Our other wonderful caretaker is Dee. She was the one who took us into town earlier. Without her we would be completely lost and confused. Thanking God for providing such wonderful people to help us while we're in Zambia!